Alice Weld Tallant Explained

Alice Weld Tallant
Birth Date:	July 14, 1875
Birth Place:	Boston, Massachusetts
Death Date:	May 31, 1958
Occupation:	Physician, medical school professor
Known For:	Croix de Guerre (1918)

Alice Weld Tallant (July 14, 1875 – May 31, 1958) was an American physician and medical school professor. When her employment as a professor of obstetrics was terminated at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, it sparked the "Tallant Affair", in which students staged a strike and several colleagues resigned their positions in protest.

Early life and education

Alice "Elsie" Weld Tallant was born in Boston, the daughter of Henry Pinkham Tallant and Mary Gardner Tallant. She graduated from Smith College in 1897,^{[1] [2]} and earned her medical degree at Johns Hopkins University in 1902, with further training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard Medical School,^[3] in New York and in Berlin.

Career

Tallant was an intern at the New England Hospital for Women and Children from 1902 to 1905. She lectured on hygiene at Bates College from 1904 to 1905. During World War I, she went to France as one of the directors of the Smith College Relief Unit,^{[4] [5] [6]} and later worked with Anne Morgan in the American Committee for Devastated France,^[7] treating influenza among war refugees; her service earned her a Croix de Guerre in 1918.^[8]

From 1905 to 1923, Tallant was a professor of obstetrics at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania,^[9] and was a practicing obstetrician at Woman's Hospital of Philadelphia from 1905 until her death in 1958. When her reappointment at the medical college was refused without public explanation in 1923,^[10] students went on a strike,^[11] alumnae presented a petition in support of Tallant, and several of her colleagues, including Ruth Webster Lathrop, resigned in protest. This controversy is recalled in school history as the "Tallant Affair".^{[12] [13]}

Tallant was an obstetrician at Philadelphia General Hospital from 1922 to 1928. From 1928 to 1938, she was a social worker and physician at the Joy Settlement. From 1906 to 1950, she was a physician on staff at the Girls' House of Refuge. She served on the executive committee of the American Child Hygiene Association.^[14] She was the author of A Text-book of Obstetrical Nursing (1922).^[15]

Publications

• "Some Observations on the Occurrence of Broadbent's Sign" (1904)^[16]
• "An Obstetric Anomaly" (1908)^[17]
• "The Question of Scholarships" (1911)^[18]
• "A Study of Ophthalmia in the New-born: With Nine Charts" (1912)^[19]
• "'Pre-natal Care' as Conducted in the College Hospital" (1916)^[20]
• "The Pros and Cons of Accouchement Forcé in Placenta Previa" (1917)^[21]
• A Text-book of Obstetrical Nursing (1922)
• "A Study of the Results in Face Presentations" (1923)^[22]

Personal life

Tallant died in 1958. There is a small collection of her papers in the Smith College Archives.^[23] The papers of the Smith College Relief Unit include materials related to Tallant's World War I experiences.^[24]

Notes and References

1. Book: Shearer, Benjamin F. . Home Front Heroes: A Biographical Dictionary of Americans During Wartime . 2007 . Greenwood Publishing Group . 978-0-313-33423-8 . 796 . en.
2. News: 1896-03-22 . Smith Freshmen Win . 1 . The Boston Globe . 2022-07-08 . Newspapers.com.
3. Book: Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania . Scalpel : the 1911 yearbook of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania . 1911 . 18 . Internet Archive.
4. Web site: February 26, 2020 . The Daring Women of Smith College's Relief Unit . 2022-07-08 . The Chapin School . en-US.
5. Book: Gaines, Ruth Louise . Ladies of Grécourt: The Smith College Relief Unit in the Somme . 1920 . E.P. Dutton . 233 . en.
6. News: 1918-03-29 . Woman Relief Unit Member Torn with Grief for Peasants . 10 . Evening Public Ledger . 2022-07-09 . Newspapers.com.
7. News: 1918-05-04 . Women Physicians Going Abroad for War Service . 12 . Evening Public Ledger . 2022-07-08 . Newspapers.com.
8. Chrisagis, Ximena. "'Miss Tallant...docteur en medicine': A Woman Physician in World War I France" Ohio Academy of Medical History Annual Conference Presentations (April 2005).
9. News: 1915-12-23 . Women to Study Health Problems . 11 . Harrisburg Telegraph . 2022-07-08 . Newspapers.com.
10. News: 1923-06-16 . Medical Alumnae Offer Compromise . 13 . The Philadelphia Inquirer . 2022-07-08 . Newspapers.com.
11. News: 1923-03-15 . Woman's College Students Strike . 19 . The Morning Post . 2022-07-08 . Newspapers.com.
12. https://drexel.edu/legacy-center/the-collections/exhibits/martha-tracy-medical-student-to-dean/martha-tracy-and-the-tallant-affair/ "Martha Tracy and the Tallant Affair"
13. Book: Peitzman, Steven Jay . A New and Untried Course: Woman's Medical College and Medical College of Pennsylvania, 1850-1998 . 2000 . Rutgers University Press . 978-0-8135-2816-8 . 147–159 . en.
14. Book: American Child Hygiene Association . Transactions of the Annual Meeting . 1920 . Arno Press . en.
15. Book: Tallant, Alice Weld . A Text-book of Obstetrical Nursing . 1922 . Lea & Febiger . en.
16. TALLANT . ALICE WELD . 1904-10-27 . Some Observations on the Occurrence of Broadbent's Sign . The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal . 151 . 17 . 457–461 . 10.1056/NEJM190410271511702 . 0096-6762.
17. Tallant . Alice Weld . 1908-03-07 . An Obstetric Anomaly. . Journal of the American Medical Association . en . L . 10 . 785 . 10.1001/jama.1908.02530360047016 . 0002-9955.
18. Tallant . Alice Weld . July 1911 . The Question of Scholarships . The Smith Alumnae Quarterly . 2 . 181–185.
19. Tallant, Alice Weld. "A Study of Ophthalmia in the New-Born: With Nine Charts" The American Journal of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children 66 (5) (November 1912): 866,
20. Book: Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania Alumnae Association . Transactions of the ... Annual Meeting of the Alumnae Association of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania . 1916 . The Association . en.
21. Tallant . Alice Weld . The Pros and Cons of Accouchement Forcé in Placenta Previa . The American Journal of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children . 1917 . 76 . 46–50.
22. Tallant . Alice Weld . July 1923 . A Study of the Results in Face Presentations . American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology . 6 . 1 . 116–120 . 10.1016/s0002-9378(16)42808-5 . 0002-9378.
23. https://findingaids.smith.edu/repositories/2/resources/553 Alice Weld Tallant papers
24. Book: Smith College Relief Unit . Smith College Relief Unit records, 1917-1997. . Hawes . Harriet Boyd . Tallant . Alice Weld . Andrews . Hannah Dunlop . Wolfs . Marie Leonie . Chapin . Anne McClallan . Biddlecome . Elizabeth . Ainsworth . Dorothy S . Bliss . Elizabeth Howe . 1917 . English . 52253821.